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Creating an Opt-In Website for Your Business
Creating an “opt-in” website is an excellent way for you to publicize your business. Opt-in mainly entails a person has giving their consent for a your company to email them. Opting in typically happens when they sign up on your website for a series of emails. Common examples of this might an e-newsletter or coupons for specific products.
To be completely sure that the person wants their emails, some companies will use a double opt-in. For the first opt-in, the person fills out a form on your website. The second part of the opt-in happens when the recipient gets an automatic email asking them to click a link to confirm that they wish to sign up.
When creating your email marketing campaign, you want to make sure to use an opt-in lead list. If you send emails to lots of recipients who haven’t opted in is called spamming, and it’s highly unprofessional.
To view an excellent example of an opt-in website, visit AdoptionHomeStudyReport.com.
Finding New Customers
We have found that most small businesses have more great ideas on how to advertise their services than they have available resources. So where do you start if you are looking for more customers? Learning to generate new sales leads is an vital skill for an businessperson. The possibilities for finding new customers range from cold calling names from the phone book to using more modern methods like search engine optimization to get traffic to your website.
The task of finding new customers should involve conducting market research to understand your target audience and their needs, determining which lead generation techniques are best to increase your sales, and following several strategies to sell additional products and/or services to existing customers.
Before you can find new customers and increase sales, you need to understand who your customer is, what value proposition you offer to customers, and what your competition is currently offering in the market and where there are gaps for a new entrant. So to start, conduct some market research.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged finding leads, finding new customers, finding new leads, increase sales, marketing, marketing tip
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When is the Best Time to Send Marketing Emails?
When is the best time of day and time of week to send your business emails so that they don’t get overlooked?
The time you decide to launch your email campaign can have an effect on its overall results. This detail may not be as important as the audience you select, the subject line, or the list you are using, but it is a factor. If you are working to get the best results, research has shown this mid-week is best; your recipients will generally be out of the office on Saturday and Sunday.
Working on a weekend? Schedule your e-mails for late Monday (after the early morning rush) so they don’t get overlooked. On Friday, people are often interested in wrapping things up. If someone starts something on a Friday, it may be forgotten over the weekend. For obvious reasons, you will want to avoid sending your emails on holidays. The majority of marketers try to ensure their email is not just sitting stagnate in the recipient’s inbox first thing in the morning, especially after a holiday.
Our Business Seminar Topics
Here are a few of our available seminar topics, geared toward entrepreneurs and small businesses. For more information, please contact us.
LilyPad Marketing: Becoming an Expert in Your Field
Did you know that one of the easiest things you can do to improve your market share is to become an expert in your field? Our three step process offers a way that anyone in any field can improve name and brand recognition through becoming a perceived expert.
LilyPad Marketing: Connect with YOUR Customers
Who are your customers? How do they connect with others? Learn the basics of the three most valuable methods of getting your message in front of the new and existing clients that your business needs for 2012.
LilyPad Marketing: Daily Marketing Plan
Are you doing something to market your business each and every day? I recommend taking two actions every day, one online and one offline. Learn my simple system for success and implement my easy marketing calendar into your daily activities.
LilyPad Marketing: Growing Revenue Through Strategic Partnerships
Learn the basics of forming strategic partnerships with other business owners to help grow each others’ bottom line. You’ll learn three ways to identify strategic partners and create offers that provide win-win scenarios for you both.
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Tagged business seminar, Lilypad Marketing, marketing course, marketing seminar
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Outline for Your Marketing Plan
In order to create the outline for your marketing plan, these key pieces must be included:
Product Performance
Create a couple of paragraphs to summarize your company’s status versus to last year’s plan, along with explanations of changes from the plan. Any research conducted on product performance or quality can be included in this section as well.
Background
Highlights from the background analysis-for best organization, use numbered lists and bullet points wherever possible. Items to include may be: the market analysis, competitive analysis, and/or performance history worksheets.
Long-Term Goals
A short statement that points to the long-term direction for your company, and how it fits within your corporate strategic plan.
Problems/Opportunities
List issues and problems that could make it difficult to for you to reach your goals. List the steps to be taken to lessen these issues, and methods that may help you in achieving key goals.
Sales Forecasts/Goals
A report of the product’s expected sales for the next fiscal year. If your company has more than one product or product line to be looked at, you may find it useful to employ a tabular format.
Marketing Objectives
List your goals for your company for the next fiscal year.
Marketing Program
You should make sure to include your unique selling feature(s) of the product (such as how the product is to be recognized in the customer’s mind versus the competition). This statement needs to be able to coordinate with other marketing variables.
Target market
A description of and justification for the primary and secondary target markets.
Product strategy
Depending upon your company, this section may include many items. There should be one or more objectives, each followed by a brief strategy statement. Your format can be organized like this:
• Short description of your product or service, that specifies the competitive differences, along with a table of the sizes and variety of products in the line.
• Product goals, including new uses, repositioning, line extensions/modifications, programs to improve quality, or new-product introductions.
• Capacity utilization, including existing capacity along with manufacturing requirements of the marketing plan.
Pricing strategy
A general statement of the pricing strategy used for the service or product(s). Here, you will need to include changes in price, discounts, warranties, and terms and conditions of sale. It may also be useful to attach a table that indicates the expected impact on selling and profit performance.
Advertising strategy
A report of your company’s plan for national advertising, cooperative advertising, and trade advertising.
Promotion strategy
Include any types of promotions you may utilize, including of sales promotions, support materials, trade show plans, and other non-advertising promotions.
Distribution strategy
Include references for the channel of distribution, including adding or deleting intermediaries. You will also want to include information on any programs you’ll need to motivate channel members or to collect information about the end-user from them.
Product support
Suggestions regarding the warranty/ guarantee for the product, customer service changes, or any other product support issues that affect the achievement of the product objectives.
Marketing Research
Attach any planned marketing research for the fiscal year.
Financial Summary
A formal profit and loss statement for the product(s).
Schedules
Indicate which team members are assigned which tasks, and their deadlines.
By organizing your marketing plan as such, your company may ensure clear goals and objectives!
Learn the Top 3 Resources for Marketers
In today’s new economy, we all need a little help to stay in touch with our customers.
Here are some of the top recommendations we have for connecting with your customers and being sure they receive your extra special attention.
Automate those special touches for client’s birthdays, anniversaries, and even holidays! Send Out Cards let you design any look you want and schedule it in the future. It even has a built in reminder service!
Did you know that over 95% of all text messages are read? If you want to jump start your business today, start connecting with your customers right where they are. The advantage of iZigg is the platform is based on the shortcode 90210 — who doesn’t know 90210?!? Your customers will be telling all their friends to get on YOUR list!
Affordable, reliable, easy-to-use… GoDaddy can help you with registering domains, redirecting them, setting up shopping carts, and much more!
Lifetime Foundation – Potential Non-Profit Partner
This blog post is a follow-up to our post from November 1, “Have a Non-Profit Partner?” By partnering your business with a non-profit organization, you may increase the likelihood of achieving their mission and to amplify their reach. Also, by giving back you’ll be contributing to making the world a better place.
A potential non-profit partner for you is Lifetime Adoption Foundation. This non-profit organization is dedicated to the development of healthy and fulfilling futures. They help ensure this through educational opportunities for birthmothers who have lovingly chosen adoption for their child, adoption grants for families adopting hard-to-place children, and donations to families in need such as food, clothing, school supplies and children’s items.
Learn more about them by visiting www.LifetimeFoundation.org or calling them at (530) 432-7383.
A Simple Recipe for Business Success in a New Economy
Find a successful business, entrepreneur or mentor, and study and observe exactly what made them successful. Study their methods used and habits they applied. Then, follow their recipe for success in a specific area: marketing, hiring, publicity, customer service etc.
Next: Do what they have done, then try to make it even better, repeat the recipe for your business, keep repeating it to consistently get the results you want and need.
Serving instructions:
Keep it consistently HOT when serving this recipe, to the many customers hungry, and looking for what you have to offer. The constant aroma will remind them when they are hungry where to go to fill their need. Bon appetit! Your recipe was a success, but don’t stop creating and seeking more recipes from others that have proven to be successful.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged business tips, marketing tips, successful business, successful entrepreneur
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Have a Non-Profit Partner?
If you don’t have a local non-profit charity you help or support, now is the time to begin! Face it, every business needs promotion, and charities LOVE to thank their supporters.
Now, you don’t have to have a lot of extra money. In fact, they may appreciate the gift of your time and talents more than what’s in your pocketbook. And, as an added bonus, they usually take the time to offer a public thank you!
This doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Here are three quick steps to help you achieve giving back while building your business.
1. Identify a local charity that is a good match.
2. Make a phone call stating your desire to give and asking for a meeting with the director.
3. Help and serve, to the best of your ability.
Remember, it doesn’t have to involve cash. If you are an exterminator, you could offer free bug services to a local shelter. If you are a music teacher, establish a “scholarship” for a needy student of a local organization. There are many ways — you only need to find one.
Posted in Marketing, non-profit
Tagged business partner, non-profit charity, non-profit partner
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